Nov 15, 2012

The bus stops at a red light, right next to Tariq who is on
the sidewalk. Is that really him? Amina thinks to her self as she looks out
the window with surprise. What is that thing on his head? Who is that girl next
to him? How come his ankles are showing? Who is that? Amina thinks with utter
shock.

Tariq walks down the street towards the Masjid with a kufi
on his head and a white spotless thobe on. His smile pierces Amina’s heart, but
latter stabbed it as she looked across to whom he is smiling at. There is a
girl next to him laughing as his white teeth and dimples shine. Amina stares
out the window long enough to catch Tariq’s eyes, he stops talking to the girl
and stares back at Amina. Tears of ache and pain tremble down Amina’s eyes as
she sees her long lover, the person who Amina wished to marry, the person whom
she gave everything and anything she ever loved and liked for, dumping her for
a black abayah wearing, glasses hanging Muslimah.

The stop light changes and the bus moves fast ahead, leaving
behind Tariq and his new lover back on the sidewalk. The sound of the bus screeching across the road, snaps Amina
back to reality, she looks ahead and the bus driver shakes his head. The bus comes
to a halt and the bus driver goes to check what happened. The bus has halted just two blocks away from where Amina saw
Tariq and the girl. Amina begins to pray that the bus would be ready to go
before Tariq would get there, the awkward embarrassment of defeat frustrates
Amina.

As Amina sits in the abandoned bus, the bus driver enters
and says,

“Sorry, there is a flat tire. I just called, and the next
bus should be here in half an hour.”

Amina instantaneously becomes worried. She walks passed him
off the bus and looks back, as she does so, she spots Tariq and the girl across
the street waiting to cross. Amina’s eyes widen and she begins to run towards
her home, although it was a half hour walk it is much better than facing Tariq.

Amina hears her voice being called from behind,

“Amina” says a voice awfully familiar.

Amina doesn’t turn
back to see who it was, she just keeps running. After some time she has to gasp for air, her asthma had been
acting up, and she forgets the doctor made it clear that she was not to run for
long periods of time. As she pants and breathes for air, Tariq and the girl run
towards her.

“Are you OK?” asks Tariq with concern.

Amina takes out her inhaler and inhales. She begins
coughing, but it slows down as she regains her breath. She looks up and her
eyes begin to become watery. Tariq backs away and the girl, whom Amina despises
greatly, stood next to Tariq, finally speaks,

“You must be Amina. Well, I’m Tariq’s sister,” she says with
a smile on her face.

“Tariq doesn’t’ have a sister.” Amina says with anger.

The girl looked offended, and Tariq looks annoyed.

“I was out of the city studying at an Islamic University, I
just got back during the winter break. You probably haven’t heard of me. I’m
Layla.” She says

Amina feels foolish and uncanny, and looks at Tariq up and
down.

“Why don’t you walk with me Amina? We are going to the
Masjid, Tariq can lead the way.” Layla says kindly.

Amina nods and smiles Tariq walks in front while Amina and
Layla walked two meter’s away.

“Sorry about that, I didn’t know.” Amina says with empathy.

“Don’t worry about it, I’m sure it must have been a big
change for you. Tariq told me about you… You see when I came back from school
abroad I started pushing Tariq to come to lectures with me at the Masjid. There
was one lecture he heard called Letting Go that really moved him. A week later
he decided that he needed to learn the deen. So he’s going to complete his
final year off high school through home schooling. And during the week he’s
memorizing Qur’an with Sh. Salem.”

Tariq walks faster ahead as Layla explains to Amina what happened.

“Why didn’t he just tell me?” Amina asks with concern.

Layla sighs as though she was waiting for that question.

“You see Amina, that lecture he heard, also spoke about
gender relations, and well after that day he hesitantly deleted your number
from his phone.” She says.

Amina looks ahead at the green
and white colored Masjid as it stands, waiting for her. Its minaret soars across
the sky as the sun’s ray’s gleam through the minaret and dome.

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